


You Can Count on Me

by escribo



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-03
Updated: 2013-01-03
Packaged: 2017-11-23 13:17:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/622570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escribo/pseuds/escribo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remus and Sirius spend their first Christmas together after leaving school</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can Count on Me

"So, explain it to me, Moony."

Sirius was leaning his head back over the arm of the couch to look at Remus upside down, barely waiting until Remus got through the door before he picked up their conversation from nearly a week ago. Remus paused for a moment, his hands arrested in their movement before he shook his head and dropped his satchel on the floor. "Explain what to you."

"What we were talking about before you left."

"Padfoot--" Remus drew his hand over his eyes and pinched at the bridge of his nose. It'd been a long week, spent surveilling a suspected werewolf den in the middle of Wales in the rain and the muck, alone because the only people who ever voluntarily wanted to go on a mission with him were the other marauders and they had been needed elsewhere. His good nature had been lost somewhere around the third day of the constant downpour and even Sirius' bright eyes and cheery grin (and ill disguised concern) weren't enough to restore it. Remus just wanted to tell him to bugger off.

Sirius must have sensed it. He slid off the couch, rising gracefully to his feet, and pushed Remus down to take his place. "C'mon. I'll make you tea and then you can explain what you meant."

"Meant by what?" Remus sunk down lower into the cushions, sliding sideways to rest his head where Sirius' had been, and pulled the tattered quilt he'd brought from his mother's house down over his legs. The pillow smelled good, like cologne and smoke--like Sirius--and Remus breathed in deeply just before he drifted off.

When he woke up, he found that Sirius had pulled the curtains closed and built up the fire in the grate. Remus pushed himself up to sit, pulling the quilt over his shoulders, and rubbed his hand over his face. He was starving.

"You said Santa Claus didn't use the floo network," Sirius said as he set down a tray on the table in front of where Remus was sitting.

"Did I? When?" Remus bit into a sandwich, not waiting for an answer--barely even listening to what he'd said--as he reached for his cup of tea. "Oh, that's lovely. Did you make this?" 

"Of course not. I ran down to the corner while you were asleep. Have some of the soup, too. I swear you look thinner."

"Did you bring back cake?"

"Maybe. Explain it to me first."

"Explain what." 

"You said--"

"Right, I know. I said Santa doesn't use the floo network--"

"But comes down the chimney."

"Similar in concept I know but it's different, trust me." Remus finished off his sandwich and started on the soup, ignoring the spoon to sup it directly from the cup.

"I don't like you coming back from missions like this, Moony," Sirius whispered earnestly, his hands clasped into fists. "Next time--"

"I'm fine, Padfoot. Come on." Remus nudged Sirius' shoulder with his own and smiled up at him from beneath his lashes. "The mysteries of Muggle Christmas have obviously been troubling you for the last week, despite the fact that you had a higher score than I did in Muggle Studies, which was unbelievable, by the way."

"If Santa Claus isn't a wizard, then how does he come down the chimney of all those houses?"

"It's a magic of a sort but he's not a wizard."

"That's not really an answer."

"It's about as good as I can do right now. Cake?"

"Cake and then bed, where you can explain to me about the moose."

"Reindeer," Remus corrected as he took the plate of cake when Sirius offered it to him, and dragged his fork through the thick layer of icing before taking a bite. "The story says eight tiny reindeer, though my mum always said that he was an elf who rode on snowflakes and crept in through the crack under the door."

"What about the chimney?"

"We didn't have one, not in our flat in Dumfries where I grew up before-- Well, before."

"You were happy there?"

Remus set his plate down carefully before he sat back against Sirius' side. He had very few memories from that time. He remembered it was often cold and they had little to eat but his mum would always sing as she cooked or tidied up, remembered that she liked to read and always kept blue bells in a cracked vase on the windowsill during the spring. "I think so," he said slowly. "I don't remember it much but yeah, I think so."

"Are you happy here?"

Remus smiled at the way Sirius was very carefully not meeting his eyes and Remus reached over to twine their fingers together. "Very."

"Even if I harangue you about your strange Muggle customs?"

"Even then, though they're not so strange. Peter comes from a Wizarding family and he believed in Santa until we were fourteen."

"But that's Peter."

"Be nice, Padfoot."

"I'm being very nice. There's a pair of dragon hide boots and a bottle of fire whiskey under the tree for him."

"What did you get me?"

Sirius' grin widened and he lifted his arm to pull Remus even closer, to whisper in his ear. "Something even nicer."

"You shouldn't have done."

"I knew you were going to say that."

"Habit."

"You'll like it."

"Tell me what it is?" Remus asked as he twisted enough to see Sirius' face.

"No, but I can tell you that you'll like it. I searched half of London for it and it's loaded with sentimental value and all that rubbish that you go weak in the knees for."

"I go weak in the knees for you."

"Very nice, Moony."

"Did you like that?"

"You call me ridiculous." Sirius gently kissed him, nibbled on his lower lip, before kissing him again, and Remus sunk into it, drawing his arms around Sirius shoulder. He slipped his fingers into the thick shock of dark hair and tugged once, twice, before kissing back harder until they were both breathless and Sirius had to pull away to catch his breath. 

"I missed you," Sirius whispered, his voice cracking slightly.

Remus stared into Sirius' eyes and pressed the palm of his hand against Sirius' cheek, feeling the scratch of the day's stubble. Sirius was real and solid and warm, and everything that Remus had been holding onto as he sat in the cold and muck waiting for something to happen. He was glad, suddenly, that nothing had. "I missed you, too."

"Merry Christmas, Moony. I'm glad you're home."

"Merry Christmas, Padfoot," Remus answered before he leaned in to kiss Sirius again. "I'll always come home to you."


End file.
